Apparently, in every area, Canadians overwhelmingly support Canada Post. Everyone likes the idea of replacing home delivery with community mailboxes. Even senior citizens, who often dread winter walks in icy weather, welcome a way to get out of the house. In fact, one Canadian was quoted as saying door-to-door delivery is unreasonable in this day and age, despite the fact that home delivery six days a week is the norm in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and France. Continue reading →

On Dec. 11, Canada Post unveiled its “Five Point Plan,” aimed at returning the corporation to profitability, with changes taking effect in the new year. Highlights of the plan include the cancellation of home delivery in favour of community mailboxes, more franchise outlets, fewer sorting plants, fewer employees, and changes to the pension plan. Continue reading →

Canada Post’s stand through all of this has been to point out that two-thirds of Canadians already don’t get home delivery so this is taking away a benefit unfairly given to some Canadians based solely on geography. Sort of similar to when residents of Toronto’s affluent Rosedale district were told that garbage collectors would no longer be walking up their driveways to pick up and return garbage cans, but that they would have to haul their trash to the curb like everyone else. Continue reading →

Following the withdrawal of permanent-rate P-marked stamps, Canada Post has returned to definitive stamps marked with the current-first class domestic rate of 63 cents. The new stamps were put into post offices within hours of Canada Post announcing a proposed domestic-rate increase to 85-cents per stamp, or $1 if stamps are purchased as singles. Continue reading →

The United States Postal Service and Buffalo Fire Department are remembering that fateful night of Dec. 30, 1813, when a mixed force of around 1,400 British regulars, Canadian militia, and native warriors crossed over the river near Niagara. They landed at a place called Black Rock, dispersed a larger force of Americans, and chased them to Buffalo. Once there, our boys showed their class by burning down all but four buildings, and destroying the navy yard and four armed vessels. They returned home through Black Rock, pausing only to set fire to that place as well. Continue reading →

For these error booklets to have made it to McAndless, they would have had to pass unnoticed by at least three workers. It is that improbability that makes error stamps hard to find and attractive to collectors. Continue reading →

On top of all of this, postal historians and postmark collectors will have their own challenges as more local cancels vanish in the name of centralized sorting. I am sure Canada Post was only thinking about the bottom line, but it looks like 2014 will be an interesting year for collectors. Continue reading →

“People will either want to be part of the story or ensure that they get what they want.” Some items come up so rarely that their acquisition can be considered a once in a lifetime chance. Verge said that while there are three known two-cent Large Queen’s on laid paper, the last time one sold in a public auction was more than 40 years ago. Continue reading →

Perhaps the best news to come out of all of this is that the sale has been covered in literally dozens of Canadian mainstream publications, most of which would never consider stamp collecting newsworthy, except perhaps in a humour column. Continue reading →

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In what it calls a “last-ditch effort to deliver the holidays,” Canada Post recently proposed an immediate end to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers’ (CUPW) rotating strikes through January, during which time mediation would continue to work towards a resolution. In an effort to restore full operations and deliver oncoming volumes, Canada Post is proposing: a […]